Gilded
by SeraSearaSpin
Summary: Takane instigates a tickle fight and gets more than she bargained for. Mostly fluff.


**I didn't know I could do fluff. I don't think I fluffed very well. But this ship deserves fluff. It deserves all the fluff they can get. Let them live in a fluffy cotton candy castle full of Tono's fluffy baby bunnies with big fluffy pillows for the rest of their days. frickin otp y u so cute**

**It seemed to me that most HaruTaka fics were from only from Takane's point of view, so I wanted to shake it up somewhat. **

**Review! :D**

* * *

"...and with that, school's over! At least for me it is. I know you both have to stay after school to make up work, though, so ha ha!" Kenjirou flounced out the door, pausing to offer the two students a wave and an overly cheesy grin.

"Bye, sensei!" Haruka returned the smile.

"It's rude to poke fun at us!" growled Takane at her teacher's retreating back, and then muttered "Besides, you're the one who gives us this work. It's not my fault you teach it badly enough for us to have to stay after." _Or that we're sick and frequently miss school. _She propped her head up on one hand, using the other to hold the paper still and squint at the reading assignment that was due last week. "Ugh, this is so boring."

"It's not that bad," said Haruka cheerfully, skimming the article. It detailed the amount of natural catastrophes that were overdue, and how, with this sort of pressure, the world would end soon. Alarmist writing, no more than that. "I like to learn things."

Takane lifted her face off the desk to look at him. "Yeah, sure, _you_ like learning things, but what about a hopeless case like me?"

"You're not hopeless, Takane," said Haruka absently, unaware of the flush on her cheeks from the four words. "You're the Lightning-Dancer-Ene! It takes real skill to win in a competition like that! You're amazing." He smiled at her, and Takane tried smiling back for a moment before her nature kicked in. "Well of course you'd say I was amazing, because you really suck at this game, and anyone better than you is amazing."

Unfazed by the insult, Haruka replied, "After you finish, you can teach me some more. I want to be as good as you some day!"

"Maybe in ten years," she replied, and plugged herself into her iPod and sprawled over her desk. After a moment, Haruka turned back to the paper and started jotting down annotations, smiling a little. _She's so stubborn, it's cute._

He chanced glance at her. Her ponytails poked slightly above her head, like antennae, and though her face was buried in her arms and he could hear the pulsing bass of her music from here, the buttery afternoon light lay like a thin membrane on her head. Like a halo, he realized, and looked away as his heart sped up. _You only came back from the hospital a week ago, don't over-tax yourself,_ he cautioned, but couldn't help a second look, like a little boy sneaking into the kitchen to get more dessert.

She shifted slightly, and now she was facing him. Haruka jerked his eyes back to his paper in case she decided to open her eyes and saw him looking, and found that he'd been doodling her in the margins. He hastened to erase it, and then struggled to focus on his work. _A halo?_ he chided his inner romantic. _Takane is no one's idea of an angel, unless they want a bad-tempered, easily irritated girl with a penchant for hitting those around her._

_(I wouldn't object to that sort of angel.)_

He felt his lips twitch in a smile. _Always smiling, that's me, _he thought with a trace of bitterness. _A smile for everyone, hide the real feelings. But if I stopped smiling, they'd ask me what was wrong, they'd be worried. And I hate to make them worry more than I hate this useless body. _With that, he forced his thoughts back in line. _The sooner I finish, the sooner I can play Dead Bullet with her...  
_

Despite himself, he couldn't help the look he stole. Her unrefined features were gilded with gold, softening them, lending the girl an alluring sort of aura. Haruka very clearly felt his heart skip, a warning - but he defied it and continued to look.

"You know," he said, and if she'd heard him she'd have been shocked at the transition from his bubbly, cheery voice to the cracked, sad one he now wielded. "You're always in your own little world. I-I want to share that world with you instead of looking in upon it. I-" here he lost the courage to stare her in the face and dropped his eyes - "I really like you, Takane..."

He buried his face in his hands, feeling on fire with heat, and worked at slowing his heart down. He didn't need another incident, it'd make her worry more, and he despised making her worry. After a moment, he peeked through the gap between ring and pinky fingers, seeing if she'd heard, but her face was as serene as before.

"Ah..."

There was no way he could finish his work now. His mind was already filing away the gilded Takane as another thing to think about while he was trying to sleep, and the paper he'd found so enthralling now captured zero percent of his interest. He scribbled in some slap-dash answers anyway, as to look complete (he highly doubted Kenjirou paid enough attention to their answers to grade them correctly), and pushed his chair back.

* * *

"Wakey, wakey," crooned a voice in her ear, pulling one of her earbuds out, and Takane slowly drifted back to consciousness. _Ah, I must've fallen asleep._ "Go away," she grunted, and rolled her head back into her arms, languidly putting the plastic back in her ears.

There was a moment, and then a light poke to her ribs. It tickled, and got her attention. "Whaddyawant?" She lifted her head to see Haruka resting his chin on the front of her desk, smiling at her, no more than two inches away. She jumped.

"What do you think you're doing, trying to startle someone like that? D'you want me to get whiplash or something?" Now her brash voice rang out in all its glory, and Haruka's smile started fading. He lowered his eyes. "I only thought-"

But because she loved (_him_) that beautiful smile of his, she quickly cut him off. "Such a rude thing can only be rectified with...a tickle fight!"

Takane lunged for him as he stood with his mouth open in surprise, and scrabbled over his torso and under his arms, where most tickle spots usually were. As he was still standing there dumbly, her fingers deftly prodded the flesh just above the base of his ribcage, and his face flushed pink with swallowed giggles. He shied away from her. "Takane, what are you doing?"

"Weakpoint confirmed!" she crowed, grinning, completely ignoring him, and went in for a second try. Haruka staggered away from her, fending her off with ineffectual swipes that she easily circumvented. With a look of utter triumph on her face, Takane swooped in, drumming her fingers against his ribs as he rained light blows on her back, and this time, the laughter escaped him, floating like a bubble in the brilliant afternoon-evening sun.

Now short of breath and smiling, Haruka windmilled his arms in an attempt to dislodge her. A few backwards, unsteady steps later, he managed to fall over, knocking over at a chair, his desk, and Takane, who landed with an _oomph_ on a substance significantly more yielding than the tile floor. "Aah!" Her cheeks flushed bright red, and one of her hands was pinned between his arm and his side. "Haruka, are you okay?"

The boy's eyes were closed, and his skin seemed paler than it normally did. Then he opened them and sat up, and the light seemed to cast a rosy glow in his cheeks. Takane's blush darkened, and she ducked her head, suddenly flustered and tongue-tied. It was then that she realized she was straddling his waist, and she ripped her hand back and rolled off him, hot tears starting in the back of her eyes. _Ugh, he must think I'm so eager or something, or that I'm too weird and that he won't want to spend time with me anymore. I've ruined it again...  
_

She quickly blotted at her tears, casting her face in steel once again. _And if he sees my tears, he'll think I'm weak and stupid. _"What're you staring at?" she snapped, whipping her head over her shoulder. "I obviously won. End of story. And since you made me worry, I guess we won't be playing Dead Bullet today, then." Striding back over to her chair, she grabbed the iPod and jammed oblivion back in her ears before she could see his face fall.

* * *

Haruka watched her retreat, his heart doing all sorts of aerobics in his chest from her touch, and barely managed to hold in a damp sigh. _I've made her worry. She must really hate me now._ Familiar self-loathing battered him, and he choked it back.

"Takane..."

But she was in her world of music again, and his reaching hand fell.

Shrouded in a sense of gloom, he didn't feel a motivation to get up, instead lying amongst the desks and chairs and scattered sunlight. He watched Takane work over the article, her brow furrowing as she struggled deeper into the dull text, her pencil occasionally tapping against the desk in time to the beat. Aureate light played over her visage, occasionally shadowed by a cloud or tree leaves as they billowed outside.

The patch of light he was lying in was warm.

Presently, he slept.

* * *

"I _hate_ this," Takane muttered, glaring pure death at the article. "What sort of idiot writes something this stupid, and in a size nine font? I'll be sure to complain to Kenjirou tomorrow about how nobody should have to deal with this tripe." Who even cared about the world ending, anyway? It hadn't happened yet, despite all predictions. "Stupid religious fanatics," she cursed, and aimlessly scribbled a mockery of words on the lines. Final question, now...

She curled her lip in disgust upon reading it. '_What does this article mean to you? Please use complete sentences, and-' _"Yadda, yadda," she muttered, and drew an obscene gesture in the space provided.

She swiveled in her chair, features lighting up. "Haruka!" called the twin-tailed girl, already craning her neck to search before she remembered she was mad at him. She muttered an expletive under her breath, and then bent to right the aimless boy's desk.

He was lying on the floor, eyes closed, and from the looks of him he'd been lying there for quite a while, possibly never having gotten up from the fall during their tickle fight. His skin held a healthy color, beaten into his cheeks by the sunlight, but looks were frequently deceiving.

"Ha-Haruka?" Takane felt a horrible fear within her, and dropped down beside him, paper forgotten. "Are you okay?" _This is _my_ fault, he had an attack when I wasn't paying attention, why do I treat him so badly when I __don't want him to die?_

No response, and there was a bitter lump in her throat.

"Hey," she said softly, walking her fingers up to his side, and with a sudden movement, digging them into his body. "Weakpoint conf-"

There was a sudden blur of movement, and Haruka was up, beaming at the fact he'd actually managed to fool her for more than a few seconds. In a moment, the accidental position they'd wound up in when the boy had fallen the first time was reversed. Haruka pinned the smaller girl to the ground, tickling her madly while she tried to scream at him and not burst from laughter at the same time.

"Do you know how scared you made me?" In a brief lull in Haruka's vicious tickle-attack, she glared at him, and tried to squirm out from under him. "I thought you'd had another attack, and I didn't know what to do! I was afr- I didn't want to have to miss school to visit you again," she amended, and cut him a thick scowl. She looked the picture of rage.

However, the racing of her heart and the pinkness of her cheeks suggested another tale. He was so close, literally right on top of her, and his adorable smile graced his features. The evening light made it look as if he'd been gilded.

"Well," said Haruka, uncomfortable with his closeness. He'd _never_ been this close to Takane before without her hitting him or yelling at him. Sometimes, he wondered why he tried when she so clearly wasn't interested. _Hearts do their own thing, and the brain just follows behind._

"Well, _what_?" Takane's tone was sharper than usual. It was a desperate bid to hide the quaver in her voice.

"I-I-I..I sort of, um..." His tongue was clumsy in his mouth when he looked at her, a (_perfect_) girl with her arms folded, hair in now-loose tails, stuck under him, and obviously displeased. _Is this even a good idea?_

Takane stared up at him, suddenly dumbstruck. _Is this it? Are my dreams coming true?_

"I kind of, uh..." Now he was blushing too, heart increasing speed again, and he was too embarassed to meet her eyes and see the rejection clear in them.

Try as she might, she couldn't make her voice emerge from her throat, and even if she did, it would probably be closer to an awkward, strangled squawk.

He clearly took her silence the wrong way. "I mean, I know you probably don't care about me in that way at all, but I..."

"Oh, hurry up and do it already." Her voice was warm, amused, a tone she didn't even know she could use, and with bravery she didn't know she had (_i guess it's a day for discoveries) _she reached up and pulled his head down into a kiss.

It ended far too soon, Haruka jerking back in shock. For a dreadful moment, Takane worried she'd misinterpreted him, ruined a beautiful friendship-

Then in a movement born of instinct, he inclined his head again, pressing their lips together, and his arms went around her and he rolled off her legs so they were curled up together in a patch of sunlight, kissing. Hesitantly, she ran her fingers through the fluffy hair she'd always wanted to touch but never found a reason to, and in response, his hold tightened on the back of her neck.

When that too was broken by a desire for air, Takane closed her eyes and leaned her head against his chest, feeling, to her utter horror, tears welling up. _Now I've gone and ruined it, ruined it, ruined..._

She wanted to push out of his embrace, get her shameful self out of there. _Of course he's only kissing back to make me feel less awkward because he's such a kind boy, he doesn't want me to feel bad about myself. _She struggled to escape, but for once, Haruka didn't give in to her.

Takane didn't realize she'd said those things aloud until he laid his fingers on her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. She fixed her eyes stubbornly on the sinking sun.

"Hey, you aren't allowed to pretend I don't exist until something happens," he said in the gentlest of voices, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, the final crack in the dam. She buried her face in his shirt, and he held her as the light turned from gold to red.

Takane finally dared to peep out from her self-imposed isolation. "You don't hate me?"

"Why would I? I've liked you for a long time now." He couldn't bring himself to say the word "love", couldn't commit himself that deeply yet, he still didn't know whether she actually, genuinely cared about him or was too surprised to push him away. (_Surely she couldn't've pulled me down earlier, that's not what she does-"_

"But-"

He impulsively shut her up with a kiss, and she fervently returned it.

There was a moment of silence as they broke apart again, and Takane growled, "Lying on the floor is unsanitary."

Neither of them made of move to get up. The twin-tailed girl curled her fingers tightly in Haruka's uniform.

"Of course I like you," she whispered to the school badge, feeling her face start boiling. At this rate, she could rent herself out as an electronic stove. _Come one, come all, see the human oven! When embarassed, her features are hot enough to cook an egg on!_

"You're not kidding?" Haruka's voice was nearly stifled off with delight and disbelief.

"What would I have to kid about? It's_ you_ that makes my heart sing, _you _that always manages to be cheerful, even when everything seems ruined. I don't know why - ugh!"

Takane rolled back into his chest, hiding her face. _Did I really say such sappy things?_ her mind spun wildly. _And he's not complaining either, he likes it, he likes_ me-

Presently, Haruka said, with obvious reluctance, "We do have to get off the floor. Imagine if the janitor comes in and sees us here, and then sensei will know about it." He offered her a hand up, but she was already bolt upright (the threat of a loser teacher like Kenjirou discovering their secret was too horrible to comprehend) and turned to offer him a hand, though he was much taller than she was. Haruka came to his feet, but Takane lost her balance, and his arms were around her again. She laughed a little, and let herself smile.

They were both gilded, a statue in gold and bronze, and though the statue split apart, saying such inanities like "Same time tomorrow?" and "Of course," neither of them would sleep that night.

Even when the statues changed, gold turning to lazuli and bronze turning to silver by the hand of some meticulous, dangerous alchemy, there would be an imprint of remembrance. A sort of familiar fingerprint inside, a remainder of the first time they'd admitted their feelings, tangled with the emotions, and won. The two halves of a whole weren't meant to stay apart for as long as they had, and they had longer still until they could reunite.

_(just wait)_

* * *

**this probably isn't very prettily written because i just sat down and hammered this out and didn't refine it... (what's with all the weird talk, that ending is a mess, i could sit here and list flaws forever but i won't)**

**but ANYWAY you don't care about me nitpicking, hopefully you enjoyed ^^;**


End file.
